About this Research Topic

Background

Talk about scandal is a common feature of mass media (Tumber and Waisboard, 2019) and social media platforms provide diverse and multi-faceted arenas through which journalists, celebrities, and audiences generate, are subject to, and make meaning from, controversy. Scandal is also closely linked to a specific type of media talk, gossip, which functions as a moral barometer for understanding personal and socio-cultural norms and values (Jones, 1980; McDonnell and Silver, 2023). Globally, as politics and popular culture have become increasingly intertwined, scandals both reflect and influence our contemporary politics. Further, social media platforms offer audiences increasing opportunities to participate in media scandals, furthering our investment in their machinations and outcomes.

This Research Topic investigates the multi-faceted ways in which social media discourse is shaping contemporary understandings of scandal in popular culture. By attending to social media rhetoric, the relationship between popular media sources and audiences, and the subjects of scandal, we aim to document the influence of these discursive digital spaces on the politics of popular culture. Specifically, we attend to the ways in which scandal talk has the potential to reproduce and challenge existing structures of power, especially as they relate to issues of gender, race, class, sexuality, and able-bodiedness. We also consider why it is that, in the seemingly ephemeral world of digital culture, some scandals fade from memory while others persist, and some controversies have the potential to sway public opinion while others reinforce existing norms and values.

Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• the forms and functions of social media scandal
• rhetoric of online gossip
• the role of producer-consumers
• the impact (or lack thereof) of such scandals on popular culture and contemporary politics.
• the affordances of, and differences between, various social media platforms
• matters of social control as expressed through media platforms, including norm setting, regulation, and content governance, both formal and informal
• the role of social media scandal in representing or challenging conceptions of gender, race, class, sexuality, and able-bodiedness, among others.

Please note that this Research Topic accepts submissions via Frontiers in Communication only.

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• Editorial
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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy Brief
• Review

Keywords: scandal, rhetoric, social media, journalism, media talk, gossip, news, audiences

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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